Tears, hugs and help: Church groups assist reunited families

SAN ANTONIO — The immigrant parents arrived at Catholic Charities in white vans with their children, their paperwork and almost nothing else.

They needed food, clothing, a place to stay and a way to travel to family in the United States. Many were still shell-shocked from weeks in government detention. One father carried an infant who didn’t recognize him after two months apart. A mother held the hand of her 5-year-old daughter, who refused for a time to talk on the phone because she blamed her for their separation.

Scenes such as this are unfolding throughout Texas and Arizona as the Trump administration works to meet a Thursday deadline to reunite immigrant parents and children. The government is releasing hundreds of families to faith-based groups and leaving the groups to care for them.

Newly reunited families spent their first day together Monday at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, which took them in after they were released from custody. The families included children as young as babies and old as teenagers, as well as asylum seekers fleeing violence in Central America and people who were shuttled around the country to various detention facilities.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had notified Catholic Charities to expect families to be dropped off. Catholic Charities also takes in families that ICE drops directly at the local bus station, but who might otherwise have to stay there overnight or change several buses to reach their destination. Volunteers from a local interfaith group keep watch at the station for immigrant families and call Catholic Charities when they see them.

In many cases, immigrant advocates say, parents and children are quickly released or transferred to family detention centers without notifying their lawyers. The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday filed more than a dozen first-person accounts of confusion and disorder during the process.

Caseworkers purchase plane tickets for families and have phones available to call the friend or relative sponsoring them. They also provide hotel rooms for families waiting for buses or planes.